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Is the temple of Buddha’s footprints the temple of doom?

It’s a Buddhist temple that cares for dying Aids patients. It’s also a hugely successful money-making operation, attracting thousands of tourists with its displays of mummified corpses. So where does all that money go

The Soccerbot is a computer-controlled training machine that can shoot footballs at speeds of up to 55mph. With tireless accuracy, it can do low passes, curved shots and corner kicks. Soccerbot is priced at about £80,000, and only one has been made. Today, this prototype sits outside an orphanage for HIV-infected children in central Thailand, spitting out footballs with a force that could lift its residents off their tiny feet.

The orphanage is part of a wealthy charitable empire built by Alongkot Dikkapanyo, 54, a celebrated Buddhist monk who began caring for Aids patients in 1992, when most of his compatriots still shunned them. His empire has two parts: this remote, 1,200-acre complex, which is home to more than a thousand children, including many HIV-positive orphans; and Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu, or "the temple of Buddha's footprints", built into a parched hillside 50 miles away, where about 200 HIV-infected